How can you not love a wedding featuring California redwoods, two brides in matching Teva sandals, and a bouncy house? Just one of those things would be enough to set our hearts aflutter – and the fabulous Jewish wedding of Margeaux and Zoe included all three, and so much more!
It’s hard not to fall for a wedding with as stunning an outdoor setting as this one – and we love that Margeaux and Zoe worked with Rachelle of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush to design a custom nature-themed ketubah reflecting their big day. Featuring some favorite flowers, plus greenery in honor of the venue, it’s an absolute stunner – and how cool is it that these two wrote their own ketubah text in English and Hebrew?! Don’t miss it in the exquisite photos by photographer Hellena Cedeno!
We’re also pretty smitten with the brides’ attire – not just their dresses from BHLDN (Zoe) and Jenny Yoo (Margeaux), but their comfy footwear too. Yep, the couple really opted to wear matching Teva sandals the whole day! Such a fun personal touch – and how great must they have felt to dance in?!
There’s so much more to say about this very special Jewish wedding, but we’ll leave it to Margeaux and Zoe to fill you in on the rest…
How we Met
We are both rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College. We met at List College, the undergraduate program between the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University.
A California Wedding
Both our ceremony and reception took place in Mill Valley. Margeaux was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and wanted to include the northern California redwood trees in the wedding. Zoe is a big outdoors girl (and COVID is still a concern!), so it made sense for the ceremony to take place outside among the redwoods.
We originally looked at Trocadero Clubhouse in San Francisco, but quickly realized it would not be enough space for our larger guest list, so we began to search for places outside of the city. The Amphitheatre in Old Mill Park was perfect: enough space for all of our guests, beautiful redwood trees, and a raised stage for our chuppah!
Mill Valley’s Community Center served as our reception venue. It was a quick drive from the park, had beautiful raised ceilings lined with wooden beams and large windows, which add natural light and ventilation to the space.
Theme & Wedding Planner
Margeaux planned the wedding herself (with a little help from her mom and Zoe). Our colors were purple (Margeaux’s favorite), navy blue (Zoe’s favorite), and white. We didn’t have a particular theme, but we added lots of unique touches to represent our relationship!
Dresses
Zoe’s dress was BHLDN’s Laurel. Margeaux’s dress was Jenny Yoo’s Lawrence. We were looking for two dresses that represented our different styles but complemented each other. Margeaux’s was long and elegant, and Zoe’s was lighter and beaded.
Hair + Make-up
Our hair and makeup was done by Patrick from Harlow Salon in San Francisco. He arrived at 6am to the house to get started, for which we will be forever grateful, and we both felt utterly beautiful!
Shoes & Accessories
We are long-time Teva wearers and fans – we wore matching Tevas the whole day! They were so “us.” They perfectly matched the outdoor wedding – and they were comfortable, too! Both our engagement rings (custom made!) and wedding bands, from Emily Chelsea Jewelry, are matching.
Ceremony and Chuppah
The San Francisco JCC has a really great program called Jew It Yourself or Ritual Resource – they lend out ritual items for different ceremonies. We borrowed our chuppah from them for free! We used Zoe’s Women of the Wall tallit as the canopy, and our florist Larry Hoogasian designed the flowers that surrounded the chuppah.
We included a new kiddush cup depicting Miriam in our ceremony, used Margeaux’s tallit for our parents’ wedding blessing, gave our guests navy blue kippot, and used the Project Lev glasses during the breaking of the glass. You can turn them into mezuzot after the ceremony! Bay Area All Strings and Bass provided our quartet.
Ketubah
Our rabbi encouraged us to get a special ketubah that was representative of our relationship and that we’d love to display for years to come. We knew we wanted a nature-themed ketubah to match our outdoor wedding, and found Rachelle of The Delicate Brush online. We wanted to include dahlias (Zoe once took Margeaux to a dahlia garden in CA on a lovely date), alstroemeria (Margeaux’s favorite flower), and stephanotis (symbolizing happiness in marriage).
We asked that the dahlia and alstroemeria be purple (matching the wedding colors) and that the ketubah include greenery that suited our wedding venue. We wrote our own ketubah text in English and Hebrew inspired by Gordon Tucker’s egalitarian ketubah text, with traditional Jewish ideas as well as hopes for our marriage.
Our Music Choice
Our DJ was DJ Shy. We played mostly easy listening 90s and 2000s. We didn’t have a processional, recessional, or a first dance, but our father-daughter dance was to Bob Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’. Our favorite musical moment was our last song – ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’ by Natalie Cole – everyone was on the dance floor singing along!
Flowers
Our amazing florist Larry Hoogasian took our directions (purple, pink, and white flowers) and ran with them to create amazing and unique bouquets and centerpieces! The pictures don’t lie – they were absolutely beautiful.
Photographer
Our photographer was Hellena Cedeno, who we absolutely loved. She was the perfect choice – the pictures are beautiful, of course, but she has an amazing energy and really captured some of the special moments with family and friends and did a great job wrangling all our family members, young and old! We are so happy with the pictures and couldn’t recommend her enough.
Food and Cake
Our caterer was Eli Gilad (Mediterranean food in the Bay Area!). We started off the reception with a cheese board, then had a dairy meal of salmon, pesto pasta, hummus, and sides (veggies, potatoes, salad). Our guests absolutely raved about the food! Margeaux also created a specialty drink section – Zoe’s favorite gin and tonic, Margeaux’s Shirley Temple – and we had a variety of beers, wines, and non-alcoholic drinks.
Our cakes were all done by Victoria Pastry in Marin (with the exception of our gluten-free chocolate toffee mousse cake, which was from B. Patisserie in San Francisco). We wanted to honor family festivities in the same month as our wedding by including cakes in their favorite flavors, so in addition to our St. Honore wedding cake, we had: Strawberry shortcake for Zoe’s grandmother’s birthday (the same day as our wedding!) Two chocolate raspberry cakes for Margeaux’s dad’s and Zoe’s uncle’s birthdays Princess marzipan cake for Zoe’s great-aunt’s birthday Gluten free chocolate toffee mousse cake for Zoe’s grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary
Extra Details
There were lots of personalized touches on our wedding day. Margeaux customized benchers and kippot that matched our theme and that people could take home. Zoe requested a bouncy house, which we put outside of the reception hall and was VERY popular among guests of all ages.
Margeaux and Zoe worked together on a poster about the history of gay marriage to display at the reception, and they provided a set of educational essays guests could peruse or bring home. They also provided materials for guests to educate themselves about gun violence in the United States, and had letters and envelopes for guests to sign and address to their senators asking them to take action.
Our wedding was environmentally friendly – all plates, utensils, cups, etc were compostable! Zoe’s great-grandmother sewed lace bags for wedding favors for her great-grandchildren’s weddings. We gave our guests custom M&M’s (dreamed up and arranged by Zoe’s mom) in them to take home! We requested that all guests wear Tevas or Chacos (as we did).
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
We left out a number of more “traditional” wedding rituals because they didn’t fit our relationship and our vision, and we don’t regret that for a second! We suggest that couples stay true to what they want and what makes them special, even if others don’t agree – your wedding is, at the end of the day, for you! We’re happy we can look back on our wedding and say that we didn’t sacrifice our needs and wants for anyone else!
MARGEAUX & ZOE’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photographer – Hellena Cedeno
Ketubah – The Delicate Brush {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Mill Valley
Dresses – BHLDN & Jenny Yoo
Hair + Maekup – Patrick from Harlow Salon
Caterer – Eli Gilad
Cake – Victoria Pastry, B. Patisserie
Engagement & wedding rings – Emily Chelsea
Shoes – Teva
Flowers – Larry Hoogasian
DJ – DJ Shy
Quartet – Bay Area All Strings and Bass
If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you’ll want to join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club. Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for Jewish and Jew-ish brides that removes wedstress and indecision and gives you what you need to plan with confidence during these uncertain times. Join our Brides Club here.
